Maine

Maine is a state of the United States. It is probably named after the French province of Maine. Another possibility for the name "Maine" is that the people living on islands along the coast of Maine used to speak of going to the mainland as "going over to the Main." Its U.S. postal abbreviation is ME. Four U.S. Navy ships were named USS Maine in honor of the state. The state is generally chilly, though warm summers can bring an average of 15 days above 80 degrees F for the month of July.

Geography

To the south and east is the Atlantic Ocean, and to the northeast is New Brunswick, a province of Canada. The Canadian province of Quebec is to the northwest. Maine is the northernmost state in the New England region and the easternmost state in the country (the easternmost city in the United States is Eastport, Maine), bordered on the west by New Hampshire. It is also the largest state in New England. It is the only state that borders exactly one other state. Its largest lake is Moosehead Lake, and its highest mountain is Mt. Katahdin, which is the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.

Related Topics:
Atlantic Ocean - New Brunswick - Canada - Quebec - New England - Eastport, Maine - New Hampshire - Moosehead Lake - Mt. Katahdin - Appalachian Trail

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Maine also has several unique geographical features. Machias Seal Island,

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off its easternmost point, is claimed by both the USA and Canada and

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is the only portion of all U.S. boundaries still in dispute with respect to

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sovereignty. Also in this easternmost area is the Old Sow, the largest

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tidal whirlpool in the world.

Related Topics:
Tidal - Whirlpool

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Maine is the most sparsely populated state east of the Mississippi River, owing in part to its huge relative size—its land mass exceeds that of all other New England states combined. It is appropriately called the Pine Tree State, as 90 percent of its land is forest. In the forested areas of the interior there is much uninhabited land, some of which does not even have formal political organization into local units. For example, the Northwest Aroostook, Maine "territory" in the far north is listed as having an area of 2,668 square miles and a population of 27, or one person for every 100 square miles.

Related Topics:
Mississippi River - Pine Tree State - Northwest Aroostook, Maine

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Maine is equally well known for its dramatic ocean scenery. West Quoddy Head is the country's easternmost piece of land. Along the famous rock-bound coast of Maine are lighthouses, sandy beaches, quiet fishing villages and thousands of offshore islands, including the Isles of Shoals, which straddles the New Hampshire border. Jagged rocks and cliffs and thousands of bays and inlets add to the rugged beauty of Maine's coast. Just inland, by contrast, is the view of sparkling lakes, rushing rivers, green forests and towering mountains. This visual contrast of forested slopes sweeping down to the sea has been aptly summed up by American poetess Edna St. Vincent Millay of Rockland and Camden, Maine in "Renascence":

Related Topics:
West Quoddy Head - Isles of Shoals - Edna St. Vincent Millay

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:"All I could see from where I stood

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:was three long mountains and a wood

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:I turned and looked the other way

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:and saw three islands and a bay"

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More prosaic geologists describe this type of landscape as a drowned coast, where a rising sea level has invaded former land features, creating bays out of valleys and islands out of mountain tops. In the case of Maine there has been a partially offsetting rise in land also, due to the melting of heavy glacier ice, which caused a rebounding effect of underlying rock; however, this land rise was not strong enough to eliminate all the effect of the rising sea level and its invasion of some former land features.

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Millions of ordinary Americans have enjoyed this coastal scenery at Maine's Acadia National Park, the only national park in New England, and the second-most visited national park in the United States.

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The noted American ecologist Rachel Carson did much of her research at one of the Maine seacoast's most characteristic features, a tide pool for her classic "The Edge of the Sea." The spot where she conducted observations is now preserved as the Rachel Carson Salt Pond Reserve at Pemaquid Point.

Related Topics:
Rachel Carson - Tide pool

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